10 Time Management Strategies: How to Be More Efficient

We may stem from different walks of life, and hold varying opinions on an infinite number of topics, but we can all agree on one thing:

Time is our most valuable currency.

We can always buy more things, but time? That isn’t for sale.

It could be argued that the key to a successful life is spending quality time on the activities that have the biggest impact on our happiness.

That means both doing what we love most — vacationing with family, cycling on Saturdays, watching cat videos — and completing the high-ROI tasks that allow for such activities.

The further one advances professionally, the more effective they must become juggling responsibilities at work and at home.

According to a study sponsored by Staples, 40 percent of American office-workers report experiencing burnout. Heavy workloads, constant pressure and crazy deadlines are commonly cited culprits. Yikes.

In this post, we’ve gathered some of our favorite tips on how to maximize productivity, increase efficiency and reduce work-related stress. Most of these strategies have also helped us grow Jotform to 4.2 million users and more than 130 employees.

An important disclaimer: Just because a specific time management strategy works for one person doesn’t, necessarily, mean it will serve another.

As entrepreneur Chris Winfield discovered when reevaluating his personal relationship with time management:

“I noticed that several different solutions each had a piece of the puzzle. I took those parts that worked for me, and combined them into my own system. Slowly but surely, I developed a formula that would forever change how I work.”

Thus, the key to developing an effective time management strategy is knowing which techniques are worth trying and which ones you should avoid.

Create a personal time management strategy, and you just might surprise yourself with how much more you can achieve, week to week, in the same amount of time.

Let’s get started.

When evaluating time management strategies, it’s important to recognize that most tips fall into two categories:

1. Project management, or project planning, involves: Goal setting, prioritizing, delegating, scheduling and decision making. Whether you’re a writer, a software engineer or a rocket scientist, these are the skills you utilize at work.
2. Attention management, on the other hand, relates to your ability to maintain focus on individual tasks. As I’ve written before, it’s important to know your unique reason(s) for procrastinating before diving into productivity techniques.

Different strategies are appropriate for different time management dilemmas. At any given moment, you could be dealing with a project management issue, an attention management issue or both.

Thus, the key to developing an effective time management strategy is to make it personal. Here’s a summary of the process:

• STEP 1: Take inventory of how you spend your time.
• STEP 2: Compare how you actually spend your time to how you think you spend your time.
• STEP 3: Identify which tasks are “causing the most trouble.”
• STEP 4: Identify why they are a source of trouble.
• STEP 5: Choose an appropriate time management strategy.

A word to the wise: Don’t rush to implement a bunch of tips, hacks and techniques before going through this personal evaluation process.

Fail to take your personal inventory, and you will probably waste significant time experimenting with advice that isn’t useful to you.

Let’s walk through the process step by step.

Before you can begin cultivating effective time management skills, you must get real with yourself: How are you really spending your time?

According to one study, only 17 percent of the population can accurately predict how long a task will take.

Unsurprisingly, we often have a skewed perception of time passing. And we forget to factor in intermediary activities like walking to the restroom, chatting with colleagues and sitting in traffic.

Assuming you sleep eight hours per night, you have 112 hours per week to devote toward personal and professional tasks.

With that said, there are several ways to conduct a personal time inventory. One of the best methods we’ve come across is from entrepreneur and OKDork contributor Taylor Pearson.

In 2017, the author ran an experiment that completely changed how he now spends his time. Pearson divided his time-tracking exercises into two separate experiments: Organizing time by energy level and organizing time by value.

Both experiments involved organizing activities by categories, assigning colors to those categories and inputting the information into a Google calendar.

His first experiment looked something like this:

In the experiment, Pearson divided his tasks into several professional and personal categories. His inspiration came from an essay written called Maker Time, Manager Time.

The essay, written by Paul Graham, proposes dividing work assignments into the overarching categories of “manager time” and “maker time.”

Manager tasks are conducted within 30-minute to 1-hour blocks; they include objectives like writing emails, making phone calls and holding meetings. Maker tasks are conducted within 2 to 4 hour blocks; they include things like coding software, writing articles and mapping business strategies.

Once Pearson assigned his task categories, he created a mock calendar outlining how he wanted to spend his time. This calendar represented his ideal workweek. It looked something like this:

Pearson made two predictions: 1. He was spending too much time on managerial tasks, and not enough on maker tasks. 2. He wasn’t spending as much time as he would like learning.

Over the course of one week, Pearson adjusted his calendar at the end of each work day to reflect how he actually spent his time. That calendar looked something like this:

What did he learn from his experiment?

1. He was 80 percent accurate in predicting how he actually spent his time, but there were some areas that could be improved upon.
2. How he spent his time was not how he spent his attention.

In other words, just because Pearson was executing a task didn’t necessarily mean he was focused. For example, he found himself mulling over work challenges while doing bicep curls at the gym. He also found his mind drifting to page layouts while reading a book for leisure.

In Pearson’s second experiment, he went through the same steps. Only, this time, he categorized his activities by sums of value:

• Unique Ability Activities ($10,000/hour work): You have superior skill, energy and passion for continual improvement.

• Excellent Activities ($1,000/hour work): You have superior skill and reputation for these tasks, but no passion.

• Competent Activities ($100/hour work): You meet the minimum standards, but are super bored.

• Incompetence Activities ($10/hour work): You constantly feel frustrated, conflicted or stressed.

The Key Takeaway: By conducting a personal time inventory, Pearson identified where he was falling short in our two time management categories: Project management and attention management. After which, he was able to identify and implement complimentary time management tips for improvement.

You can download your own version of Pearson’s spreadsheet here.

Again, comparing what you actually do every week to what you want to do can be an eye-opening experience. Choose the category system that makes sense for you, and track your time, before implementing the following time management tips:

A tool won’t make you productive. Without the skill to support it, a tool is useless.

Time management tips come in two different forms: Tools and skills.

Being a technology company, we are consistently approached by vendors offering us the “latest and greatest” project management tools. Most of these come in the form of software applications, and most of them we ignore. Why?  

Because we’ve learned a couple of important lessons over the years:  

1. Without the skill to support it, a tool is useless.
2. And using too many tools is counterproductive to success.

For example, our marketing team purposefully keeps their toolkit small, relying on trusted tools like Zapier and Calendly. Do the programs work as well as they claim? Absolutely, but only if we remember they are just tools.

Thus, an effective time management strategy requires having both the right tools and the right skills in place. In this way, our marketing team members aren’t that different from pop singer Taylor Swift. Just hear us out…

If Swift were to perform a live show with a subpar sound system, she wouldn’t sound as amazing as she usually does. But she would still sound good because she is a highly skilled singer.

Similarly, our marketing team members wouldn’t be as effective without the automated workflows Zapier allows them to create.

However, they would still experience success by leaning on skills like copywriting, ad campaign management and SEO. With that said, some professional skills are universal.

Mastering time management tips like peak productivity, deliberate practice and delegation will help virtually anyone, in any role. Below are the skills our entire team relies on, across all departments, to get work done.

Try practicing the following top 10 time management strategies throughout your work week for maximum productivity:

How to support time management with stress management activities

Unless you’re living in a secluded, mountainside cave — where your basic needs are met — you will probably experience stress at some point in your life. Even then, you would still face the contents of your mind, which can be stressful in and of itself.

What exactly is stress? It’s an uncomfortable physiological and emotional response to a perceived demand. Whether that be a crouching tiger, a looming deadline or an imaginary event makes no difference. If your bodymind finds a situation undesirable, it will emote.

Despite how it may sometimes feel, stress isn’t trying to annoy us — it’s drawing our attention toward something that needs to change. Which is why tackling stress like any list item is an ineffective, long-term strategy.  

Why settle for managing stress when you can find and eliminate the cause, right? Unfortunately, the process isn’t always straightforward.  Most people can quickly identify what is bothering them on the surface: An unsatisfying job, a challenging relationship or a difficult life event. But the source of our problems often has to do with underlying thoughts and behaviors below the surface. And identifying these repetitive patterns can require a decent amount of curiosity, commitment and self-reflection.

Considering we’re a productivity tool company — not a mental health association — we won’t be delving into the intricacies of the mind. However, here are some of our favorite tips for reducing stress and boosting productivity:

1. Become comfortable saying ‘No’

One of the most common causes of modern stress is over-extension. What causes someone to overschedule themselves to the point of exhaustion? Some individuals appear to be excited about the prospect of participating in everything!

This tendency can be corrected with the simple recognition that there are only 24 hours in a day and a good scheduling system. However, most of us overcommit ourselves because we feel bad saying no to people who care about. Whether it’s a coworker asking for extra project support, or a neighbor wanting a favor, we have an expectation the person will be disappointed by our refusal.

The best way to begin overcoming “people-pleasing tendencies” is to challenge our expectations and thoughts with questions: Will this person really dislike me for saying no? Am I selfish for refusing to do something that will stress me out?  The more often you challenge your assumptions, and practice saying no, the easier it will become.


2. Express yourself
   

Stress is kinda like the “check engine” light on your car’s dashboard — the longer you wait to address it, the more crap builds up. Perhaps, nowhere is this issue more evident than our persona and professional relationships.


The longer we wait to “have a talk” with someone, the more built-up emotion we accumulate. Again, the best way to circumvent this tendency is to a). Notice when the reluctance to communicate arises and b). Challenge your thoughts about what you think will happen. Most importantly, remind yourself how much better you’ll feel  after laying your cards on the table.


3. Move your body

It’s no secret that engaging in physical activity relieves stress. In fact, scientists say most of us could benefit from engaging in at least 30 minutes of exercise a day.  Here are some easy ways to incorporate movement into your daily routine.

• Walk or cycle to the grocery store.
• Park your car in the further parking space.
• Use the stairs instead of the elevator.
• Practice dance tutorials on YouTube
• Revisit a childhood sport you love.
• Buy a jump rope, and keep it next to your desk.

4. Prioritize leisure

Finally, don’t become so immersed in your daily responsibilities that you neglect self-care. Nurturing oneself is a necessity — not a luxury.

Make time for activities that bring you joy everyday; whether that mean playing the piano, restoring an automobile or knitting the world’s largest blanket. If you find yourself routinely neglecting leisure, you may need to schedule it in your calendar like anything else.

As you practice the aforementioned stress management activities, you’ll find yourself feeling more efficient both at work and at home.

“Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” ― William Penn

The concept of time management didn’t exist before the 19th century. It wasn’t until factory jobs began dictating punctuality that managing one’s workload became “a thing.”

Unlike traditional labour, factory gigs required workers to clock in and clock out at specific times. For this reason, punctuality was increasingly seen as a desirable trait in Western society.

During this time, mechanical engineer Frederick Winslow Taylor published one of the world’s first professional development books.

Taylor’s steps for improving productivity might sound obvious to today’s managers — observe a task, break it into smaller actions and teach others how to do it — but his contemporaries loved them.

Fast-forward to the early 1950s, and management consultant Peter Drucker began expanding upon Taylor’s ideas for white-collar positions. He went on to write an impressive 39 books, before predicting the rise of the knowledge worker.

But the subject of time management itself didn’t enter the public arena until 1959. That’s when James McKay proposed that mastering certain time management skills would make us more organized, more efficient and happier in his book “The Management of Time.”

Interestingly, McKay’s book is still widely read today. His most famous line?

Tomorrow you promise yourself will be different, yet tomorrow is too often a repetition of today.

It’s safe to say McKay would agree — the struggle is real. But he might be surprised to learn we now have more than 20,000 time management resources available to us on Amazon alone.

Additional time management resources

There are huge amount of printed and online resources around you can find easily. Along with countless books dedicated to better time management, lots of credible podcasts are publicly available. For those who still count on old-school methods, these suggestions would surely be beneficial and practical.

In order to track your efforts and get some help to stay focused, you can also use time management software.

1. Focus Booster (based on Pomodoro Technique)

Focus Booster is a desktop and mobile app that aims to improve productivity. The app is based on the Pomodoro Technique, a popular time management strategy that divides focused work sessions into 25-minute intervals — referred to as pomodoros.

Workers are advised to separate each pomodoro with a 5-minute break, before stepping away from the screen.

Whether the task is writing a proposal, answering emails or coding a new application, the approach should be the same: One interval of focused work, followed by a short break.

When the technique was originally developed in the 90s, participants tracked their time with tomato-shaped kitchen timers. Focus booster brings the practice into the modern era by combining electronic time-tracking with personalized data reports.

2. Toggl

Want to create a simple timesheet, but hate traditional spreadsheets?

Toggl’s user interface is super easy to navigate, yet complex enough to manage workspaces, clients and projects.

The time management software was originally created with small businesses in mind and comes with more than 100 convenient integrations. Popular programs like Basecamp, Asana and Google Drive play well with Toggl. Available for both Desktop and mobile.

3. Asana

Asana uses the kanban style of project management, which balances tasks, priority levels, and available bandwidth to streamline activity while avoiding the dreaded bottleneck. The software has multiple features that you can use to assign and organize tasks both individually and in a team, and it’s all laid out on a virtual board for easy viewing and management. 

Breaking up your project into tasks on a visual board doesn’t just give you a useful overview to understand your project’s flow. Asana also allows you to move and shift priorities as they change (which they often do). 

Part of Asana’s feature versatility comes from its compatibility with external tools and extensions. You can use Jotform’s Asana integration to automatically send form submissions and attached files to your Asana boards.

4. Forest

Forest is a unique app that turns time management into a game. The concept is simple: Whenever you want to focus on a task, plant a virtual tree.

If you stay focused, the tree will grow. If you lose focus, the tree will die.

As the name implies, users can grow several trees to eventually create a virtual forest. If you’re someone who is motivated by “quick wins,” and likes gaming, we recommend Forest for a fun experiment.

Fun fact: The organization allows users to spend the virtual coins they earn on planting real trees through a partnership with Trees for The Future.

5. TimeTree

TimeTree is another aesthetically pleasing app that allows families or teams to share multiple calendars. Whether you’re planning a networking event, a sporting event or even a family celebration, Time Tree keeps everyone up-to-date with all updates.

6. SelfControl

Finally, our favorite time management app is SelfControl — an open-source application that allows users to block themselves from distracting websites and mail servers.

The reason the app is particularly effective? Blacklisted sites are inaccessible until the timer sounds — even if you restart your computer or delete the application. If you’re not a Mac user check out Cold Turkey.

Surely there are more software than these. We have also covered some of the other time management apps that will boost your time management level, day and night.